How the Covid-19 Pandemic was Experienced by Slovenian and German Adolescents with Specific Learning Difficulties

The spring phase of the pandemic made the education of adolescents with specific learning difficulties (SpLD) challenging. In the present study, which included 122 adolescents with SpLD (50% from Slovenia, 50% from Germany), we investigated how Slovenian and German adolescents with SpLD perceived and solved some of the challenges of distance learning. The study data were collected with two online questionnaires (in Slovenian and German, respectively). Slovenian adolescents were statistically significantly more likely than German adolescents to mention problems with attention, the importance of multisensory learning, and the importance of being able to choose the time to learn, as well as psychosomatic problems. Slovenian adolescents had more experiences with praise from teachers during the pandemic and they also mentioned more issues with the transition to distance learning and the use of information and communication technology. Younger adolescents had more parental help. Male adolescents were more likely to report that they did not have the right spatial conditions for learning. German adolescents spent more time chatting on social media and experienced less support for learning. Female adolescents were more likely to express fear of the pandemic and a lack of learning support, while male adolescents across the sample missed their peers more. Most of the respondents came from families in which the pandemic did not cause serious material and spatial problems, but German adolescents were statistically significantly less likely to feel these consequences. According to the respondents, the spatial and material conditions were similar in both countries.

Informing the design of a multisensory learning environment for elementary mathematics learning

It is well known that primary school children may face difficulties in acquiring mathematical competence, possibly because teaching is generally based on formal lessons with little opportunity to exploit more multisensory-based activities within the classroom. To overcome such difficulties, we report here the exemplary design of a novel multisensory learning environment for teaching mathematical concepts based on meaningful inputs from elementary school teachers. First, we developed and administered a questionnaire to 101 teachers asking them to rate based on their experience the learning difficulty for specific arithmetical and geometrical concepts encountered by elementary school children. Additionally, the questionnaire investigated the feasibility to use multisensory information to teach mathematical concepts. Results show that challenging concepts differ depending on children school level, thus providing a guidance to improve teaching strategies and the design of new and emerging learning technologies accordingly. Second, we obtained specific and practical design inputs with workshops involving elementary school teachers and children. Altogether, these findings are used to inform the design of emerging multimodal technological applications, that take advantage not only of vision but also of other sensory modalities. In the present work, we describe in detail one exemplary multisensory environment design based on the questionnaire results and design ideas from the workshops: the Space Shapes game, which exploits visual and haptic/proprioceptive sensory information to support mental rotation, 2D–3D transformation and percentages. Corroborating research evidence in neuroscience and pedagogy, our work presents a functional approach to develop novel multimodal user interfaces to improve education in the classroom.

A Test of Three Models of Character Reversal in Typically Developing Children’s Writing

Multisensory learning to read involves, to a large extent, learning to write. A major problem in the initial teaching of handwriting is preventing children from producing reversed letters, especially when the reversed letters are identical to other letters. Torres et al. (2021) offer an efficient method for remediating this problem. Here, we analyze the reversals in their writing data, obtained on Brazilian first-graders (Mage = 6.0 years). Surprisingly, this analysis led to the observation that the first graders almost systematically reverse both the letters b and d in the particular copying conditions (the students look at one letter at a time for 3 s, then immediately after they had to write it while blindfolded). We first describe succinctly and discuss three models susceptible to account for reversal writing, with the aim to question their capacity of account for the curious observation just mentioned. The three models respectively attribute a major role to 1) initial (perceptive) mirror equivalence, 2) intra-hemispheric transfer, 3) orientation of the letters. Because none of the three models examined accounts convincingly for the observation, we accommodated and specified Model 2, adding also a major idea of Model 3. The resulting model assumes that the mirror-letter reversed image representation (b for d and vice-versa) is strongly activated in the right cerebral hemisphere, and that the top-down processes originating from this hemisphere were exacerbated by the eyes closed condition. Of course, this post-hoc and speculative model should be tested in other conditions and with other children.

Realizing the actual magnitudes of aortic diameter and cardiac output: a multisensory learning approach

The conventional physiology courses consist of theoretical lectures, clinical application seminars, numerical exercises, simulations, and laboratory practices. However, in subjects that involve relevant physical quantities, even students who successfully pass exams may be unable to realize the actual quantities involved. For example, students may know what the values of the aortic diameter and cardiac output are, and they may be skilled at calculating changes in variables without being able to realize the actual physical magnitudes of the variables, resulting in limited understanding. To address this problem, here we describe and discuss simple practical exercises specifically designed to allow students to multisensory experience (touch, see, hear) the actual physical magnitudes of aortic diameter and cardiac output in adult humans at rest and exercise. The results obtained and the feedback from a student survey both clearly show that the described approach is a simple and interesting tool for motivating students and providing them with more realistic learning.

Multisensory visuo-tactile context learning enhances the guidance of unisensory visual search

Does multisensory distractor-target context learning enhance visual search over and above unisensory learning? To address this, we had participants perform a visual search task under both uni- and multisensory conditions. Search arrays consisted of one Gabor target that differed from three homogeneous distractors in orientation; participants had to discriminate the target’s orientation. In the multisensory session, additional tactile (vibration-pattern) stimulation was delivered to two fingers of each hand, with the odd-one-out tactile target and the distractors co-located with the corresponding visual items in half the trials; the other half presented the visual array only. In both sessions, the visual target was embedded within identical (repeated) spatial arrangements of distractors in half of the trials. The results revealed faster response times to targets in repeated versus non-repeated arrays, evidencing ‘contextual cueing’. This effect was enhanced in the multisensory session—importantly, even when the visual arrays presented without concurrent tactile stimulation. Drift–diffusion modeling confirmed that contextual cueing increased the rate at which task-relevant information was accumulated, as well as decreasing the amount of evidence required for a response decision. Importantly, multisensory learning selectively enhanced the evidence-accumulation rate, expediting target detection even when the context memories were triggered by visual stimuli alone.

Multisensory integration supports configural learning of a home refuge in the whip spider Phrynus marginemaculatus

ABSTRACTWhip spiders (Amblypygi) reside in structurally complex habitats and are nocturnally active yet display notable navigational abilities. From the theory that uncertainty in sensory inputs should promote multisensory representations to guide behavior, we hypothesized that their navigation is supported by a multisensory and perhaps configural representation of navigational inputs, an ability documented in a few insects and never reported in arachnids. We trained Phrynus marginemaculatus to recognize a home shelter characterized by both discriminative olfactory and tactile stimuli. In tests, subjects readily discriminated between shelters based on the paired stimuli. However, subjects failed to recognize the shelter in tests with either of the component stimuli alone. This result is consistent with the hypothesis that the terminal phase of their navigational behavior, shelter recognition, can be supported by the integration of multisensory stimuli as an enduring, configural representation. We hypothesize that multisensory learning occurs in the whip spiders' extraordinarily large mushroom bodies, which may functionally resemble the hippocampus of vertebrates.

Multisensory learning environments. Research project Education on Screen

The unity of heterogeneous sensory channels plays an essential role in our learning and development. The multisensory approaches to learning imply a simultaneous use of visual, auditory, kinesthetic-tactile and other possible modalities. The paper analyses the affordances of multisensory learning via the framework of semiotics of culture and contemporary research in education, as well as explores the relations between multisensory perception of environment and multimodality of representation in learning. The multimodal nature of human communication became explicit in the age of the Internet and audiovisual media. The development of digital technology also made it possible to consider the multiplicity of representational modes in learning. Whereas multisensory learning practices usually emerge in vernacular contexts, the recent developments in education and semiotics of culture offer unprecedented means for supporting such practices both in formal and non-formal education. Also, the multisensory learning practices are inherent to the development of the new literacies necessary for meaning-making in the contemporary media environment. The theoretical discussion is followed by the analysis of a practical example – digital educational platform Education on Screen. The platform aims to facilitate a meaningful dialogue with the cultural heritage by means of multimodal and multisensory learning.